‘The Streets of San Francisco’ takes BART

This 1974 episode of ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ filmed at the Montgomery Street BART Station was, surprisingly, well done, for what was sometimes a hokey TV show! “Buddy Boy” and Papa Cop (Michael Douglas and Karl Malden) crossing Sansome Street to the BART entrance for the Montgomery Station to break up a drug deal going down. Number One Bush Plaza with the Crown-Zellerbach Building is in the background. That happens to me all of the time too; the escalator is, usually, coming up when I’m going downstairs, and going down when I’m headed up. The Sansome Street entrance to BART: “Here, Buddy Boy. This BART arrest is on me.” I’ve been riding BART since it opened, and I don’t remember ever being able to get a ticket by feeding coins into the gates! Besides, they’re police officers conducting a drug bust; I don’t think that they have to pay! BART updates; brought to you by the now defunct Crocker Bank. Closing the deal. Busted! One of the bad guys bolts for the exit with “Buddy Boy” hot on his tail! The bad guy gets Michael Douglas to drop his gun on the stairs by taking a hostage at knife point on the BART escalator. No Officer would do that today, and it’s unlikely any would have back then. But Mike’s not giving up. “You’re going down, dude!” “Buddy Boy” takes down the knife wielding bad guy after a violent struggle. After everything is over, a concerned citizen asks if he can be of help. The look on Michael Douglas’s face tells it all. Off to jail. That’s 575 Market Street today under construction in the background of the TV show image.